Bored at work

A little bored at work so I thought I would do a blog entry, nothing really exciting going on, yeah I know TGS is happening, but maybe I'll do a round up once it's done and highlight some of the games that catch my eye. So this time I thought I would give a little round up of some games I'm playing right now.

Xbox:
Madden 07, now I am a firm believer that competition brings out the best in people, and I'm starting to think that it's true with this franchise. I am a HUGE NFL fan, and have been playing Madden and the NFL 2K series for a long time, and quite honestly I want the 2K series to come back. Madden seems to be stagnating, no real progression being made, I do still enjoy the game don't get me wrong, it's just not great anymore.
Fable, this game is taking me a long time to get into. I love the concept and you cannot deny Molyneux's impact on the industry, but I think what's holding me back from loving this game is the combat, it feels very clunky to me, in comparison to maybe Jade Empire (+++ Amazing game).

GameCube:
Eternal Darkness, I'm loving this game to, this is one I wish I checked out earlier. It's just that I'm stuck so I've put it down for a bit should go back to it soon. Great work from a great Canadian developer!
Resident Evil 4, now I really don't need to explain anything here the game is as good as everybody says, the new control scheme / perspective is excellent, just wish I could get past the part I'm on. Can easily see why it was Game Of The Year, if you own a Cube or a PS2 you are doing yourself a disservice not picking this one up.

DS:
New Super Mario Bros., it capture the magic of the first 3 in the series, easy pick-up and play mechanics, but can be tough to master. Some of the levels do challenge your platforming skills, especially to get all the items (3 worlds left to complete all the star coins).
Mario Kart DS, you can say all you want about Gran Turismo or any other of your favorite racers, but this series for me is by far the best multiplayer racing game out there, hands down. And this version of Kart is possibly the best ever, besides the Double Dash mishap (really only the courses were weak, I enjoyed the new 2 racer karts) this series continues to be one of the most entertaining ever, often imitated never ever duplicated.
Mario 64 DS, this is just basically a port of Mario 64, with a few additions. It plays suprisingly well considering the lack of an analog stick. This game may seem outdated now, but just remember the wow factor when it was released, it truly was groundbreaking.

PSP:
Nothing going on with the PSP right now. I would like to pick up LocoRoco, but it's a little pricey at 50$, maybe should trade some of my older games in. Also was looking at Mega Man Powered Up, looks like an interesting change of pace for the series. Maybe I'll check one of these out, before Vice City Stories is released.

360 or Wii, it's down to 2

So I've finally narrowed my decision down to 2 of the "next-gen" systems. It's either gonna be the 360 or Wii, with some consideration for the PS3 in the years to come (or at least once MGS4 is released). So here's a little breakdown of pros and cons that I have with both systems.

360:
Now being an Xbox owner, the "repeat buyer" instinct should have kicked in by now you would have thought. But alas it hasn't, why? Well I'm still waiting on the "I HAVE to play that" game for the 360. Xbox had Halo, and that sold me. Now in the coming months, there's Gears of War, Assassin's Creed, BioShock, Mass Effect, and Forza 2. I have a feeling that some of those games are gonna be must-play level (I know I should play Oblivion, I just don't have the time to commit to that).
The price of the games are a bit of a deterrent 60-70$ in Canada, wow. I'm someone that you'll routinely find in the used game section trying to seek out a game that maybe I passed on the first time around.

Wii:
I must admit I was a bit of a Nintendo fanboy growing up, and playing all of my old faves, and maybe some classics that I missed out on not owning a Genesis sounds quite enticing.
I love my DS, and the reason why I love my DS, it's different. Now I don't think that you can just make anything different and it's better, but Nintendo does have a pretty good record of innovating new interfaces to video games (analog stick, rumble, touch screen). So even though flailing your hands around while trying to kill a Metroid may look silly, I'm sure it'll be fun, and that's why they invented curtains.
Now a concern that I have with the Wii, besides maybe 3 games announced around the launch window there really isn't much else I want to play, I have a feeling that it may still be another year until the titles really start to come out.

So I'm guessing that it really does as always come down to the games available. That's really what's going to make the decision. Is there enough games to keep me busy and interested then I'll buy it!